For Mensik, it is all about mind over matter. Against De Minaur, he forced himself through the exhaustion and was then able to play freely. Against Rublev, he forced himself to ignore the Russian’s fightback and take charge in the fifth set.
“He’s great fighter. He showed that,” Mensik said. “Basically after being two sets to love down, he came back and he really played unbelievable tennis. Even if I was 2-0 up, I felt in some moments that I’m actually losing. I’m just happy that in the fifth set I came back and took the momentum back on my side.”
It sounds simple but it takes many players years to acquire that sort of mental strength in a best-of-five set match. Mensik has learned it in a week and a half.
Watching who proves stronger, mentally and physically, Tuesday night will be fascinating. Their only previous match was two years ago at the Next Gen finals, which is played over a shorter scoring format (first to four games wins the set). Fonseca just edged it in five, tight tiebreak sets. But that was before both of them grew up.
